The Amazonian Gambit
by Nimbiose
Summary: AU. Non-chronological snippets of a world in which Kushina trusts her teammates enough to reveal her status as a jinchuuriki early on. Thus Mikoto makes a different choice, Yoshino is not confined to her husband's shadow, Rin lives and Kushina reins the Kyuubi back in. Of course, it all comes at a price.
1. Uzumaki Kushina

**The Amazonian Gambit**

**Disclaimer.** Naruto is not mine.  
**Rating.** T  
**Pairings.** Eventual MikotoxFugaku, KushinaxMinato; Slight RinxObitoxKakashi  
**Warnings.** Canon and non-canon character death  
**A/N.** nauruo ended, i'm nostalgic and really fond of these what-if type fics. it's been a very long time since i've actually sat down to write anything although i've planned many fics out, so please bare with me. this shouldn't be too bad as these snippets are not in chronological order, but be warned, sporadic updates.

* * *

In retrospect, Kushina Uzumaki realizes her team had been set-up to be a failure from the very beginning. Really, the youngest daughter of the main Uchiha family, a civilian girl and one of the female Uzushio refugees? It was obviously planned out to be one of the failed teams.

The redhead delights in thinking how those who planned it out reacted when Sakumo-sensei, drenched in yellow paint from head to toe, appeared at the registration office to mark his team as one that passed.

(Then again, Sakumo-sensei himself was well known for disliking those in upper management, so he must have been exceedingly pleased with his three little helions proving them wrong. Because _they_ were _his_ now, just as_ he_ was _theirs_, and they weren't letting go not again _never_ again because Kushina had already lost everything once lost mom and dad and her brother and uncle and all her cousins and she was _not_ going to go through that _again not ever_-)

Kushina Uzumaki knows that, technically, her team shouldn't have worked. They had been thrown together haphazardly, and no one had expected them to make it past the second test. But they had, by the skin of their teeth perhaps, but no one could dispute their passing.

On a rainy afternoon, in a muddy training ground in Konoha, Team White Fang was born.

(Because they're too much of _Sakumo's_ team to be anything but.)

**-o-**

Given their temperaments, it was surprisingly easy for the three girls to get along. At the time, Kushina thought it was an example of her abilities as a charismatic future leader. Looking back, she realizes that it was really thanks to a friendly respect from Mikoto, and a fond tolerance from Yoshino.

Whatever the case, Team White Fang was very fond of each other. Mikoto was not as unwilling to display emotion as the rest of her Clan (and Kushina would later find out that this was due to her status as the third, female child of the main house, which automatically made her unimportant save for her potential as a bride and Kushina really hates the stupid traditionalists which reigned over the Clan for so long) and Yoshino, the youngest child coming from a small, fairly well-off civilian family was a sharp thinker and a younger sister wrapped in one.

(Neither Mikoto nor Kushina were ever jealous of their two-years younger teammate. The girl was smart, quick-witted and levelheaded in ways neither of the other two were, and they could appreciate that in a teammate and a friend, as it allowed them to question their own understandings and grow as individuals.)

Sakumo-sensei, in his own quiet, protective manner became a fond, somewhat exasperated father figure to the three.

(Because Kushina had lost her parents and Konoha had not been able to provide new ones, Mikoto had never truly been a child to her father as much as a chess piece and Yoshino's, for all that he was there and kind, had always been more interested in teaching his elder sons the business and leaving Yoshino's raising to his wife, who was not Yoshino's mother and disliked the girl immensely.

Well, they'd show them, the girls vowed early on, independently at first and then collectively. They'd show them to take them seriously.)

**-o-**

On a mission gone sideways in Ta no Kuni and when it looks like the end is near, Kushina inadvertedly reveals to her teammates her status as a _jinchuuriki. _This is in an attempt to strengthen their spirit while they are kidnapped, as she still has things she has to do (like bringing back her village) and things to prove (like the might of the Uzumaki, ya know!). When she realizes how quiet it is, and exactly what she has revealed, she lowers her head and prepares herself for the hate.

(This is the first ripple in ensuring things don't go as most would expect. Instead of the three girls morosely accepting their fate until their sensei comes to save them, Kushina's revelation prompts the other two girls to realize that they too have people to prove wrong and reasons to live and to do things for themselves and they are _not going to just sit around waiting because they are Konoha kunoichi goddammit_.)

Kushina receives a quiet, determined, "Father doesn't really see me as anything but a means to an end, and can't look at me because I remind him of Mother, who died giving birth to me, so he's looking forward to marrying me off, because he's a bit of a bastard like that, and if I just sit here I'm proving him right, so let's do something," from Mikoto (which impresses Kushina because she knows that four months ago Mikoto would have been too meek to even attempt saying such a thing and she is so goddamn _proud_ of her beautiful, soft-spoken teammate even as relief rushes through her), and a bland "If we're doing sob stories, Mom doesn't really like me cause I'm actually a bastard Dad brought back from one of his trading trips, so she was really excited to send me to the Academy hoping I'd die in the field, now if both of you shut up, I can figure out how to get us out of here and show up at her doorstep," from Yoshino (which, really, _what the fuck Yoshino_ they are going to have words later, once they get out of this mess, because hope is returning to everyone's eyes).

With that weight off her shoulders, Kushina is more at ease and prepared to follow Yoshino's plan on how to break out, completely unaware of what she has done for her friends.

When Sakumo arrives a few hours later, he finds a group of missing-nin bound by chakra chains and metal wires, half of them caught in a genjutsu (because Mikoto is _awesome_, like Kushina always knew she was, and activated her Sharingan) and the other half meekly apologizing to the villagers they had been attacking after receiving some kind of speech from Kushina which made them regret all their sins.

Sakumo loves his girls, though, which is why he greets them all with a hug despite Kushina's loud protests that "we are ninajs Sakumo-sensei, _not _children, this is _embarrassing!"_ and if he realizes that they are more tight-nit than normal, he doesn't say anything.

He signs them up for the Chuunin Exams two months later.

**-o-**

(The girls pass the Chuunin Exams in Suna on their first try when they turn thirteen (Yoshino is eleven, and Sakumo-sensei had kept them too busy with courier missions and training to let them try the first times but he knew that when they did take the Exam they would take the world by storm and they _have_). They work well as a team, and they have several tricks up their sleeves.

Sakumo couldn't be prouder of his little darlings, who took out teams several years older with an ease that terrified both the other nations and some of his fellow Konoha Jounin-sensei.)

**-o-**

In the next three months, war officially breaks out.

(Much to the amusement of his team, it is now that Sakumo-sensei and his wife finally have a kid, a cute, little gray-haired blob they've decided to call _Kakashi _of all things and Kushina thinks that having a baby in the middle of a war is exactly what Sakumo-sensei would pull, just to prove that nothing is impossible, because he has become a paradigm of strength to his three genin.)

In the next three months, war officially breaks out, and suddenly Team White Fang finds that their skills are being used for war and assassination and infiltrations more and more often, perhaps in line with the work of their sensei in his ANBU days, but he's no longer part of ANBU, he's _theirs_, and something about all this doesn't sit well with Kushina, and she knows it doesn't sit well with her teammates either and-

One day, Sakumo-sensei's wife doesn't come back from a mission.

The girls take turns caring for baby Kakashi while his father seems to spiral further and further away from everyone, but they aren't parents in any sense of the word, and poor substitutes for it, and they are _all so busy all the time_ now.

Mikoto is training with her Sharingan much to the surprise of her Clan (and wasn't _that _a slap in the face to her old man, Kushina thought at the time) and in her newfound position as sole heir to the main family (because the war has taken things from _all of them_, and while Mikoto did not really get along with her older siblings, she never wished either of them dead, and cried openly at their funeral despite reproaching looks from her father, a father she has no qualms standing up to now thanks to her team and her sensei, but to whom she defers in Clan matters still, a part of her forever that little girl that was more an inconvenience to the man than a daughter).

Yoshino is busy as part of the Strategy Department, a position her strong, quick mind makes her well-suited for, surprising to anyone but her teammates and sensei, with small stints in the Medic-Nin barracks ("One of us has to learn _something_ about healing, given how prone Kushina and sensei are to injuries, and I don't think Kushina has the brains for it ("Hey!") and Mikoto's dad would be extra-grumpy if he found out anyone from his line was studying something that didn't have to do with attacking, so I'm really the only choice,").

And Kushina, with her sealing and chakra chains and jinchuuriki status is often at the very forefront of the war, because they can't really afford to place her anywhere else.

(It doesn't stop her from getting fed up eventually and publicly yelling at her sensei to _shape up already _because his wife, his beautiful, strong wife would not want him to wallow and seek death like he does, especially not when he has a _son _and a _team, a family_ that loves him and cares too much about him to let him die, ya know!)

(Kushina doesn't know it, but both Yoshino and Mikoto also wake up hearing her rant, and once more owe it to her to getting their lives back on track, like she had on that mission when she broke through the gloom by revealing her status as a jinchuuriki, and reminding Yoshino and Mikoto that they still had reasons to live and do things for themselves because they are strong and out to prove all the naysayers wrong.)

**-o-**

Sakumo-sensei survives long enough to Kakashi to be in the Academy for all of five months, before falling prey to his own grief at his new status in life and ending it. It is no coincidence that the night little Kakashi walks in on his dad's dead body, his genin team has all been deployed to the battle field, too far away to put a stop to the tragedy, and ensuring Danzo will have a young orphan he can take in.

**-o-**

(Danzo fails at this, as Kakashi lost a father but gained three resolute older sisters, headed by the redheaded kunoichi who used to yell at her dad every time he insinuated that she had a crush on Kakashi's idol, Minato-sensei.

Kakashi will never know the fate he avoided thanks to the stubbornness of one Uzumaki, the caring of one future Uchiha matriarch, and the protective eye of one of the smartest, most cunning kunoichi, Konoha has produced who, along with the Uchiha, is not above resorting to blackmail to ensure that their sensei's genius son is kept far away from the clutches of a certain old warhawk.

But that is a story for another time.)

* * *

hopefully will get to Rin &amp; the later stuff soon.

in the mean time, comments are greatly appreciated!


	2. Nohara Rin

**The Amazonian Gambit**

**Disclaimer.** Naruto is not mine.  
**Rating.** T  
**Pairings.** YoshinoxShikaku, KushinaxMinato; Slight RinxObitoxKakashi (idk it gets messy and sad)  
**Warnings.** Canon and non-canon character death  
**A/N.** and so we continue. sorry about the delay, folks, real life and a computer wipe can do that to you. Minato and co. may come across as slightly uninvolved in Rin's life at some points, but that is because Danzo has had his eye on Kakashi for some time and they are all more concerned about making sure he's okay than anything. i'll try to write a version of this from Kushina's perspective so you can see both sides at some point.

* * *

Nohara Rin is, at her core, a survivor.

**-o-**

Her parents had been killed in active duty when she was three. Despite everything being against her success, Nohara Rin managed to enter the Shinobi Academy and graduate. It is unclear the extent to which this decision was based on her own merit, as opposed to how much the village needed shinobi to fight in the ever-closer war.

Whatever the case, Nohara Rin graduated, became a genin and became part of a three-man team with a sensei. Hard work and heavy studying had allowed her to pass the exam on her second try, not that she minded. Her particular area of interest and developing set of skills would take time, discipline and mentoring in order for her to truly flourish, and she was very aware of this.

After all, Nohara Rin was neither a genius, part of a prominent clan nor a chakra-heavy shinobi. She would have to do this the hard way. But she was, as ever, a survivor.

**-o-**

Her three-man team consists of a boy genius, a sad excuse for an Uchiha and their sensei. Nohara Rin does not begrudge Kakashi his genius like Obito does. From a young age, she knew that some people were born with certain privileges, and whether they were a last name or a bright mind, and she also knew that she would never posses them, because such was life.

However, Nohara Rin was very heavily invested in her own studies and survival in the field. She had a dream to one day be a competent medic-nin, the type of goal that was unthinkable to most if not all shinobi in war-torn Konoha. These shinobi, however, were not Nohara Rin.

(Her team failed to recognize her potential from the beginning. After all, becoming a medic-nin was a long, torturous journey, on which only those with complete control over their chakra, mental and emotional states could embark. Nohara Rin was attempting to become something which only few had managed, and from the beginning, it was an incredibly lofty goal for a young orphaned girl to propose for herself.)

Nohara Rin recognized early on the need for teamwork and efficiency. She had a career to make and no intentions of dying before achieving everything she had set out to do, and so she worked hard to become the metaphorical glue that held her team together. Sensei, she thought, was eternally grateful for her efforts, but her two teammates left much to be desired. Apart from constantly believing her to need protection, something which any Konoha kunoichi would scoff at, they were often so immersed in their arguments that she rarely had time to spar against them.

Nohara Rin sparred with sensei even more often than Kakashi, who seemed to have a weak spot in his otherwise calm manner when it came to Obito's taunts.

(While the girl could admit to herself that she found Kakashi very attractive and Obito obviously liked her, she would always wonder the extent of affection Kakashi might have for their personal Uchiha. After all, there was absolutely no one else, not even Gai, that could rile Kakashi up as much as Obito could.)

However, sensei always made sure to go especially easy on her and, in her own neglect, she never complained. After all, she was studying to become a medic-nin, essentially the bookworms of the shinobi world, who rarely saw front line battles.

**-o-**

(To this day, Nohara Rin berates the thinking of her younger self, and will always continue to wonder what if she had trained harder what if she had worried as much about attack techniques and not just healing technique _you idiot why didn't you realize what being a shinobi really was about-)_

**-o-**

Eventually, Team Minato developed a comfortable, occasionally rambunctious routine that suited all of its members just fine in their own idiosyncratic ways.

Predictably, it all went to shit.

**-o-**

Nohara Rin knew, on a subconscious level, that death was always a very real possibility during missions, even when they were not at war with Iwa. Since the death of her parents, however, she had not been as exposed to it as she had been during that rockslide.

And now? Because of her own stupidity, her negligence in her training, her ineptitude in the front lines, Obito, sweet, silly, young Obito, was gone.

The only part of him not crushed by rocks now receded in Kakashi's eye socket, and for quite some time, she hated him. This boy she used to admire as both a shinobi and a human became the object of her envy.

It was Kakashi who received Obito's eye. It was Kakashi whom sensei's creased forhead was for. It was Kakashi who, when he spiraled down, everyone watched out for.

What about her? What about Nohara Rin? She had been there too, she had been the one captured for whom both boys had risked their lives because _she had been too stupid and reliant on her teammates to hone her attack skills. _She has been the one whose medical techniques, which she _had _worked on for years, had failed her the moment she needed them most.

Where were her sympathy casseroles, her concerned friends? After all, hadn't Obito always been especially kind to her?

(For quite some time, Nohara Rin hated Kakashi. But more than him, she hated herself for her absolute failure.)

**-o-**

But Nohara Rin is a survivor, and life continued on after the death of Obito. Only now, her training had expanded to include more than just medical justsu. She refused to be caught unawares ever again.

**-o-**

Slowly, the team of four became a team of two. Kakashi and Minato would go on long missions outside the village, and she would not accompany them often. She suspected that it was due to her inability to protect herself at Kannabi Bridge.

_Let them leave, _she thought, _I will never again be a burden to others, and the longer they stay away, the better. _

But unlike medical justsu, at which she was quite adept, her low chakra reserves and physique was not suited for any of the styles she knew. Thus she spent months absorbing the medical jutsu and exasperating herself at her lack of progress in her additional training.

It was one afternoon, after she had astronomically failed at a jutsu which had seen both sensei and Kakashi accomplish with ease, that she first met Nara Yoshino.

**-o-**

Nara Yoshino was a Nara by marriage, but otherwise a shinobi from a civilian family. While her and Shikaku had married young, they had no plans to have children as of yet. Their dynamic was both weird and entertaining, as Yoshino was an exceedingly calm woman – so long as she was not within eye sight of her lazy husband, at which point she began to nag.

Yoshino had been part of Kakashi's father's genin team, it turned out, along with Uchiha Mikoto (Obito had always had a soft spot for his aunt, who showed him kindness despite the treatment he received from the rest of the clan) and sensei's girlfriend, Uzumaki Kushina.

"They were both incredibly strong kunoichi, from distinguished lineages and pedigrees, and Sakumo-sensei was a living legend, so I was very much out of my depth as a civilian-born shinobi," Yoshino told her the first day they met.

"So what did you do?"

"I did my own thing: the clan techniques would never work for me, nor would the flashy attacks, so I took up some medical jutsu, some strategy classes, and created my own kunoichi specialization of sorts," the woman replied, "you have to remember that being a shinobi is largely based on stealth, more than anything,"

Nohara Rin frowned, before it all came spilling out.

"I've been working on my medical jutsu for years, but they were useless with Obito, and I let myself get captured because I had never bothered fighting with Kakashi or Obito because they were so different to me and I just-"

"Alright, calm down," Yoshino held the girl's shoulder in wonder, "how long have you been holding all this in?"

"…about a year,"

"As my husband would say, you are quite troublesome," Yoshino sighed, massaging her temples briefly, before smiling, "Rin, you just have to find an attack form that suits your needs and experiences, and you'll be just as good as any other ninja, trust me, I can wipe the floor with both of my former teammates, and like you, I've gotten to this point through simple hard work,"

"But I don't even know where to start!"

At the girls dismay, Yoshino was reminded only too keenly of her younger self, before she had pulled herself together and realized her mind worked in ways few could match.

"Rest for tonight, and come by again tomorrow after your time at the hospital and we'll do a full evaluation,"

**-o-**

From that day forwards, Nohara Rin and Nara Yoshino could be seen at different training grounds every other day, steadily working on improving the girl's abilities. They would occasionally be joined by Yoshino's former teammates, who would often serve as sparring partners to assess the progress made.

When she was finally recalled back on longer missions with her team, her newfound skillset gave them both pause, but they nodded and continued on.

Nohara Rin was ecstatic, and would continue to work with the three older women for many years to come.

**-o-**

(Nara Yoshino will forever be thankful she met Nohara Rin when she did, because the despair and self-hatred she saw in the girl's eyes would have led to her making rash decisions in the battlefield.

Nohara Rin is a survivor, but she owes a good deal of her life to Nara Yoshino, and she will forever be grateful to her.)

**-o-**

It was eventually Kushina who suggested they try Fuuinjutsu. While their student had done well with poisons, everyone thought that there was something else she could add to her repertoire of skills.

Although Kushina had ridiculous amounts of chakra compared to Nohara Rin's more humble reserves, the control needed over seals was similar to the one applied to medical jutsu. It was so similar, in fact, that Nohara Rin turned out to be quite proficient at it.

**-o-**

(When Minato returned from a mission one day, he told Kushina how surprised he had been when one of his students had managed to undo a seal in record time, only to redo it as if they had never been there and adding a nasty surprise to whoever came after them.

"That's my girl, -ttebane! You should've tried teaching Rin Fuuinjutsu _ages_ ago, Minato, but now I'm stealing your student! Now go find Kakashi and tell him it's dinner time and he better eat all his vegetables if he knows what's good for him," with a wink and a twirl, Kushina went to finish preparing dinner. Her boyfriend could only stare at her retreating back, perplexed.

"Now, Minato!"

"Yes, dear!" and away went the most feared man in Konoha, his proverbial tail between his legs when faced with the wrath of his pretty, red-haired girlfriend.

_When did Kushina start teaching Rin?_)

**-o-**

Nohara Rin is on a mission with Kakashi, and she knows he is about to suggest she leave him behind because that is the type of man her teammate has become. Never mind that the Kirigakure shinobi have placed the Sanbi in her stomach, making her a jinchuuriki and thus extremely volatile, her teammate is about to suggest _she leave him behind_.

(They hadn't counted on the fact that the young kunoichi they had picked out was fairly experienced with Fuuinjutsu, and had managed to alter their seals so that the Sanbi would be more contained, at least until she got Kushina to look at it.)

"No, Kakashi, I am not-"

"They won't let both of us go, Rin it'll be the easiest way-"

"Oh my god, will you stop talking and let me think? There has to be another way-"

"There is no other way-"

Their view was suddenly obscured as mist surrounded them. It was too late. Realizing that their plan had hit a bit of a snag, the Kiri-nin had decided to kill both of them and try again with another shinobi.

A battle ensued. A battle Nohara Rin was finally fit for. At least until her chakra started to fluctuate and her usually controlled, stealthy attacks became loud and powerful.

_My chakra must be changing because of the Sanbi_, she realized. As she felt for the tendrils of this newfound power, she suddenly heard a yelp from a voice she recognized.

_Kakashi!_

Determined not to lose another teammate, Nohara Rin's emotional state lost a bit of control. What followed was a massacre of the Kiri-nin, whilst Kakashi was unconscious.

The most terrifying aspect, the Kiri-nin would have said, was that despite the chakra flowing freely out of her in her rage, Nohara Rin never seemed to lose an inch of control.

(The control of a medic-nin.)

**-o-**

(When Obito arrived at the scene, it was to see his formerly sweet teammate turned into an awful beast, Kakashi at her feet. To Obito, Kakashi had failed to protect her, instead allowing her to fall in enemy hands and becoming a parody of her former self.

Silently, Obito left the scene behind, trembling and throwing up on his way back to Madara. He wanted to live in a world where Nohara Rin was who he remembered.)

**-o-**

Nohara Rin is a survivor.

She singlehandedly escaped Kirigakure as a jinchuurki, managed to keep the tailed beast in check despite being emotionally compromised, and she brought back her teammate.

Kakashi may never be able to use chakra again, but he is _alive_, and that is all that matters.

As for Nohara Rin herself?

Kushina has become her biggest supporter and mentor. Mikoto will be fighting tooth and nail for her. Yoshino is both incredibly relieved and incredibly proud, but already starting to mentally move chess pieces given the new situation. And Sensei is just glad that they have both made it back safe.

Perhaps her dreams of becoming a medic-nin are gone now that she is one of those shinobi with the flashy abilities, but for the first time since Obito's death, Nohara Rin's feet are firmly planted on a path towards happiness.

* * *

so i totally meant to kill Kakashi because i'm an awful person but he somehow managed to survive. so all of Team Minato is alive - for now.

as always, comments are appreciated.


	3. Uchiha Mikoto

**The Amazonian Gambit**

**Disclaimer.** Naruto is not mine.  
**Rating.** T  
**Pairings.** Eventual MikotoxFugaku, KushinaxMinato; Slight RinxObitoxKakashi  
**Warnings.** Canon and non-canon character death  
**A/N.** Mikoto! what a badass, polite woman. yay Uchiha women protecting their own. yay nice Uchihas. also yay attempts at romance. just as a quick side note, in case it's not clear, i intend to revisit the four characters in different sections of their life. so eventually we'll see them all as mom's, and Rin kicking ass as a jounin and what happened to Kakashi, etc.

* * *

From the moment she was born, there were no expectations placed upon Uchiha Mikoto's shoulders. Her birth had resulted in the death of her mother, and from that moment forward, it seemed to the rest of the Clan as if her future had been summarily decided. Her father never publicly lashed out at her or otherwise seemed to cause the girl harm, but his lack of interest in her upbringing spoke volumes about how little he cared for her.

Nobody dared comment, of course, for Uchiha Hayato, current head of the Uchiha Clan, did not suffer fools who dared criticize his methods.

And so the newborn girl was passed through Uchiha women who had the time to take care of a growing toddler, while Hayato concentrated on training his eldest sons, the most likely inheritors of his title.

**-o-**

When Mikoto turned five, the first stirrings of Hayato's purpose for his only daughter, a daughter he spent as little time as possible with, were felt through the Clan. He had begun to knock on doors and ask about sons of a similar age who would be keen to marry into the main family. It seemed he wanted a union cemented as soon as possible, thereby once more riding himself of having to further ensure he had to take care of his daughter.

Unbeknownst to Mikoto at the time, she was engaged to Uchiha Fugaku the morning of her sixth birthday, which she celebrated with the Uchiha women who had been taking care of her since she was young.

(She didn't hear, then, the grumblings of some of the women at such an early engagement, but they never made it past the kitchen.)

**-o-**

(She was very happy, at the time, when the stern, cold man she had learned to call Father didn't show up to the celebrations, as he had in the past.

It wasn't until she begun to pay more attention to the other Uchiha families that she realized how different her situation was.

Her Father wouldn't show up to her birthday again for many years.)

**-o-**

Mikoto's relationship with her elder siblings was somewhat better with her non-existent relationship with her Father. They acknowledged her existence, and would sometimes share meals with her, but as they learned from their Father, they never spared her much thought.

Mikoto, on the other hand, was absolutely fascinated by her elder brothers.

She had spent most of her girlhood around the various Uchiha housewives, who took turns caring for her and her brothers, ensuring they were fed and clothed, as their Father never had time and there was no Mother to help. Once her brothers reached a certain age, however, they spent a lot more time outside the Uchiha Clan complex, running around rooftops and throwing pretty, shiny stars at trees.

(Mikoto may have spied on them, once or twice.)

She often heard the housewives comment on what good shinobi her brothers were becoming, how they were protecting everyone, how they were a symbol of pride for the clan and for Father. Eagerly, Mikoto awaited the day in which she too would be able to put down the dishes and needlework she had been taught to help the housewives with, and also throw pretty stars around to protect the people she cared about, the Clan women who took care of her.

But time passed, and Mikoto was not called upon to serve her Clan.

When she finally asked one of the housewives, the woman blinked in surprise, and said, somewhat hesitantly,

"Mikoto-chan, you're the princess of the Uchiha Clan, and you've got two elder brothers, there's no need for you to be a kunoichi if you don't want to,"

Mikoto blinked, and scratched her head. The little girl didn't notice, but all of the women in the room were staring at her.

Uchiha women weren't required to become shinobi, and indeed it made perfect sense for Hayato to keep his only daughter away from that world, as a mere assurance of the continuation of his line. But most Uchiha women did indeed sign up for combat, either because their mothers had been shinobi or their fathers wanted their daughters to be protected, and more often than not, they were thankful and proud of it. There had been some discontent within the Clan women when it became obvious that Hayato had no intention of beign proactive in ensuring his daughter was a trained kunoichi, but none of them dared to complain directly to the man.

It was a very different matter, however, when the girl showed initiative.

"Can girls not be shinobi?" Mikoto asked.

"We can, dear, of course, but the questions is, do _you_ want to be one?" another housewive, this one a former Chuunin, asked back. Mikoto tilted her head cutely, as children do, before nodding decisively.

"I want to throw the pretty stars and protect the Clan like my brothers!"

**-o-**

The Uchiha women made a formal request to sign Mikoto up for the Academy and begin training her themselves in their free time. Hayato, who had spent minimal time with his daughter and only knew her as a shy, dutiful little thing that reminded him too much of his late wife, laughed hoarsely, before saying,

"Sure, let the little one try it out, and once it kicks her over the head, she'll take it all back,"

(Several Uchiha women had to be subtly held back by their peers, as they nodded and walked out of the main house, victorious.

They had tried to get the Clan males to help their cause, but it had proved fruitless. While their husbands and brothers had agreed with their sympathy for the girl and with their concern at the prospect an untrained main house heiress, they had also pointed out that there was no real need for it given her two elder brothers and her clear purpose as a wife. It had been up to the women, then, to make sure the little girl was trained.)

**-o-**

Mikoto's first day at the Academy was whirlwind. It turned out she was a very good student, as most Uchiha's were. She had met so many kids her age, and none of them were keeping their distance or constantly bowing their heads. She had even met kids from other villages, like the redhead girl called Kushina, and kids younger than her that were smart enough to be in an advanced class, like the small civilian girl called Yoshino.

All in all, it just made her surer in her decision to be a shinobi.

**-o-**

(By this point in time, one of her brothers was a chuunin and the other a genin. Occasionally, they would oversee her training with the Uchiha clanswomen, but for the most part, their Father was drilling them in family techniques and history.

Their Father was somewhat of a cruel taskmaster, but there was no denying that his methods saw results, and so no one in the Clan ever commented. He believed that by pitting the brothers against each other whilst grooming them for the parts he wanted them to play in the continuation of their line would yield formidable results.

He wasn't wrong. But it had the side effect of giving Mikoto's brothers a cruel edge with dealing with the enemy and sometimes their peers, but it was never more apparent than when, on a whim, they would sometimes take it out on their younger sister in the pretense of a training session.)

**-o-**

Mikoto passed the Academy test the first time, and was placed on a genin team with Kushina and Yoshino. Their sensei was Hatake Sakumo, who was enough of a legend in his own right that even Kushina was a bit (just a bit, ya know!) awed by him.

When she told her Father the news, very formally over the family dinner she had been requested at since she begun at the Academy, the man laughed, before informing her he'd be training with her in a few days if she passed the second test.

(Later, Mikoto would realize that the reason for her father's laughter was that their team had been very deliberately set-up as a failure. Her Father's reasoning was sound, after all. Sakumo was too useful a ninja to be relegated to babysitting duties, and the a team made up of an immigrant, a civilian kid and the Uchiha princess was pretty much guaranteed to not pass the man's test.

But Mikoto had been quietly and steadily proving her Father wrong from the moment she was born, pushing back subtly and slyly like only a young girl knows against a man who seemed to hate her when he should lover for no discernible reason. And Team White Fang passed the test.)

**-o-**

The training session Mikoto suffered at the hands of her Father was essentially a glorified beating. A way for Hayato to channel his anger and frustration at his daughter, his daughter who refused to do as he said and keep away from him because she reminded him too much of his wife whom he had loved dearly and she _had killed_-

A way for the Uchiha Clan head to try and force his daughter into the box he had made for her from the moment she was born and she stubbornly refused to stay in, no matter what he threw at her, for all that she was polite, and refined, and a _fine young lady_, as the other Clan members often said.

Because at some point the Uchiha Clan had begun to resent Hayato's brusque management, and the cruelty he had instilled in his sons, and instead began to quietly root for the daughter, their princess, young Mikoto who didn't deserve the hatred or cruelty of her parents or siblings, and who managed to persevere and continue to grow despite it all.

But Hayato sensed this slight switch in allegiance, and it would not do. So he showed his daughter, reminded her, that she had a place in the Uchiha Clan hierarchy, and that place was not a shinobi, but a bride-to-be to ensure the continuation of Hayato's line, the line of Uchiha Izuna that had been protected by the Uchiha for centuries.

**-o-**

(It is best not to repeat the words Kushina growled when Mikoto showed up to the team meeting the next day, looking like she'd picked a fight with a volcano and lost. Mikoto shrugged of the concerns of her team, although both Yoshino and Sakumo looked concerned for weeks, instead concentrating on her training and missions with her new team. She declined any help or gave away any times, polite as always.)

**-o-**

Mikoto remains unaware of it, but her father received a visit from a _very_ angry Hatake Sakumo, demanding to know why his team member had looked as she had. Hayato explained it away as a training accident, and the girl trying to take on more than she should. But Sakumo, who was neither an Uchiha Clan member nor someone who suffered fools who disregarded their comrades, did not buy it.

In no uncertain terms, and fearless in the face of one of the most influential man in the village, Sakumo reminded Hayato that Mikoto was no longer his daughter, princess of the Uchiha clan, but _Sakumo's soldier_, and that he would not allow Clan pettiness or jealousy to damage his _soldiers_ or their missions.

When Sakumo walked out of the Uchiha compound that day, leaving behind a fuming Clan Head, he thought he heard the sounds of clapping.

(He may have smiled: it was good to know the girl had the backing of the Clan, at least.)

**-o-**

(The extent to which Hayato Uchiha or his sons may have been involved with the mission that killed Hatake Sakumo's wife is unknown, but Mikoto and the Uchiha Clan have always had their suspicions, and as a result, one Hatake Kakashi has never faced any police problems, either when he became an orphan, or when he returned with a Sharingan eye from a mission gone sideways at Kannabi Bridge.

The Uchiha paid their debts.)

**-o-**

Despite how much Mikoto's life had already changed by becoming a member of Sakumo-sensei's pack, it wasn't until that fated mission when Kushina revealed her _jinchuuriki_ status that she really began to feel different. It was that mission in which he activated her Sharingan, and it was that mission when they truly began to feel like a family.

Mikoto had always been polite and soft-spoken, something she had learned growing up as a third, unwanted child to a prominent Clan and taught by the Clan women to be as good and unobtrusive a daughter as possible in order to avoid her Father's anger. (Not that it mattered given how much he had ignored her.)

But the mission and the knowledge of how much her team trusted her changed her outlook. Perhaps she was simply spending too much time Kushina and Yoshino and picking up their traits, but whatever the case, she became more outspoken in confrontations with her father, more likely to make a snide, cutting remark when her siblings were being particularly cruel. It was especially hurtful given the fact that neither of them had yet to activate their Sharingan.

And her Clan, whom she had begun to realize, had always quietly protected and favored her, was incredibly proud. It warmed her heart.

**-o-**

(Unlike either of her siblings, Mikoto received no congratulatory dinner when she passed her Chuunin Exams with her team. But she didn't care. Her dinner happened with her team, her family, and that night, they all piled into Sakumo-sensei's house and had a proper sleep over with his new wife, a bright kunoichi who had also originally been from Uzushiogakure, like Kushina and delighted in having the girls over, much to the embarrassment of Sakumo-sensei.)

**-o-**

But then suddenly, as Mikoto was changing, so did the world. And it changed drastically.

(They went to war.)

**-o-**

In the span of a few months, Mikoto's life became a depressive downward spiral. Both of her elder siblings dead in the front lines, sensei's young wife dead, all these dead relatives, everyone just _deaddeaddead-_

In the middle of all this, Mikoto was suddenly the sole heiress to the Uchiha Clan. Her interactions with her aging Father were exhausting, as he drilled into her all the knowledge he had favored upon his sons but now had to pass on to her before he died. She knew the Clan was expecting a lot, still cheering her on, but tired, drained and hoping for a fresh change in leadership.

Mikoto had never been and never will be one to cave under pressure, but the prolonged exposure to a parent who hated her (she knew why, now, but she still found it altogether inexcusable) was taking its toll. But then, Kushina, with all her unique enthusiasm in the face of adversity, once more woke up her entire team when she gave their sensei a piece of her mind.

With renewed vigor, Mikoto took on the mantle of Clan heir, and began to plan out a new vision for the Uchiha, hopefully riding them of the hatred that clung on to the Clan even all these years after the expulsion of Madara. More than ever, she interacted with her Clan members, taking turns with her team mates to take care of baby Kakashi whilst sensei was away, and for the first time in a long time, as Mikoto watched her team flourish and her Clan begin to head towards a new destiny, she thought, _this could be good_.

**-o-**

And then, sensei died. Killed himself after facing too much criticism for saving his comrades. Left behind a young boy who is scarred beyond resolve.

**-o-**

Mikoto leaves the initial caretaking to Kushina, who is more stubborn than little Kakashi can ever hope to be and will be able to push through better than anyone else. Instead, Mikoto and Yoshino put their minds together. And as Kushina could tell you, that is a truly fearsome combination.

You see, Mikoto is not the strategic genius Yoshino is, nor is she the powerhouse Kushina is, but Mikoto's techniques are crafty and rely on illusions and cunning. She has also been victim to cruelty from family, and is not averse to using cruelty and other, underhanded methods to deal with the enemy.

Mikoto and Yoshino know Kushina does not like nor does she approve of these particular methods, the dark underbelly of being a kunoichi, but that she grudgingly recognizes their necessity. And so it is these kunoichi that face Danzo head-on, having gathered over the years an impressive collection of blackmail material (mostly at Yoshino's insistence that something fishy was going on with the old war hawk and given Yoshino's ability to think forward, Mikoto had shrugged and agreed to help her) that they will not hesitate to take to the Hokage should Danzo even attempt to make a move on Kakashi.

**-o-**

(Danzo is forever wary, after that, of engaging with either woman, instead devoting an entire team to come up with counter measures against the surviving members of Team White Fang, whom he had discarded as being on the road to house wives previously.

Kakashi finds himself with constant warm meals and sisterly affection, and never spends a night by himself in the Hatake household, accompanied by one of his father's team members or their summons every night. And the cold winter that had seized his heart slowly thaws, to the extent that he one day finds himself once more joking around with Obito, no malice intended beyond teenage boy posturing.)

**-o-**

Uchiha Hayato dies on a non-descript Wednesday night. Mikoto arranges for the funeral to happen at the end of the week, and adds to the service the other Uchiha that have been declared KIA in the last few weeks of the war. An unheard of event, for a Clan Head to share their funerary services, but one few people complain against. Indeed, Mikoto receives many thankful smiles from the widowers and new orphans in the crowd.

Once the funeral ends, she gazes at the picture of her father that was set-up for the service. She did not cry, as she did when her siblings died, as she has no fond memories of the man. She inclines her head in respect, but offers the man that made her life hell for so many years no other recognition. He does not deserve it.

She spins on her heel, intent on looking at scrolls at home and beginning to plan with the Elders for her inheritance rites, when she bumps into a muscular chest encased in jounin gear.

"So sorry, Mikoto-sama!" a voice is quick to apologize, as an arm reaches out to steady her. In her funeral outfit, Mikoto is not as graceful as in her jounin clothes, and stumbles lightly, making her grateful for the support.

"It's quite alright," Mikoto looks up, meeting the eyes of her supposed fiancé, Uchiha Fugaku.

She's a bit surprised, and so is he. They have never interacted much with each other, despite their future nuptials. All Mikoto knows is that Fugaku is a decent shinobi, more keen on working as part of the Police Force but willing to step forward to the front lines during war time. A suitable match, Mikoto thinks, one that also is very respectful of her as both Clan Head and fellow shinobi.

She startles slightly as he tries to go past her, and Mikoto lets him, her dark eyes following him as he bows in front of two pictures, his father and brother, she realizes. Mikoto leaves him to his goodbyes, but waits for him to return to the compound, having asked the Uchiha at the entrance to tell him to come to the main house as soon as possible.

When there's a knock on the door, Mikoto calls that the it's open, and her supposed husband-to-be comes in. She's sitting looking at the garden when he finds her, and, at a loss as to what is expected of him, sits quietly next to her. They sit in silence for a few minutes, before Mikoto takes a breath.

"I'm not an easy woman to be with, Fugaku-san," she starts, "I'm headstrong and I'm trying to instill change in a Clan very adherent to tradition, a Clan that will soon be pushing for me to get married and have heirs, especially because I'm not willing to step down from my position as Clan Head after having gone through so much pain, but I'm also very proud of my accomplishments for the village, intend to continue working for the village in whatever form I am able, and I'm afraid I will always be very fond of my team mates, who are as un-Uchiha as possible,"

At this, she turns to him and smiles, and he allows himself a chuckle. Mikoto knows Fugaku and Kushina do not get along, both too headstrong and loud and somewhat similar in their ambitions to prove themselves to others, but she also suspects that they would die for each other just as quickly. As he fixes his eyes on hers, she continues,

"Knowing all this, Fugaku-san, and knowing we are arranged to marry, would you still be interested in becoming the husband of the Uchiha princess?"

Fugaku's mirth is gone from his face, instead replaced by a slack-jawed expression. While he had expected to have a conversation about his supposed marriage to the new Clan Head someday, he had most likely envisioned a cancellation of the arrangement, and he would not have protested. To be asked for this instead, he is flabbergasted.

"Mikoto-sama, you…you are a beautiful, tenacious woman, and any man would be lucky to have you, I am beyond honored that you would uphold an engagement set-up by our parents so long ago, and if you would have me, despite all my short comings, I would be happy to marry and follow you anywhere, even if you choose to become a missing nin or decide to become a follower of Jashin," Fugaku replies honestly.

Mikoto is startled into a laugh by his heartfelt confession, and as Fugaku stutters to try and make amends, she waves her hand at him, before pointedly looking at the garden,

"Well, then, are you going to ask, or no?"

Surprised once more (a state Fugaku is beginning to suspect he'll be in constantly for a while around this amazing woman who will be his wife), Fugaku eventually understand and kneels before her. He does not have a ring, but he takes out a kunai, and, holding the rounded end up, asks,

"Uchiha Mikoto, will you marry me?"

Her happy, girlish laughter, heard for the first time in a house that had previously meant nothing but disdain and cruelty to her, is the most resounding, most beautiful 'yes' Fugaku has ever heard.

* * *

comments appreciated.


End file.
